Monthly Archive for August, 2013

Pontiac Correctional Center. Photo by Rachel Allshiny

by Rachel Allshiny

From Suicide Girls Blog

Working on prisoner support is one of the most exhausting, transformative, frustrating, vital, tedious, rewarding, messy, wonderful things I have ever done.

When someone is in prison, every moment is a crisis. Even when a specific problem or situation is resolved, there remains an overwhelming survival mentality, which affects those inside and their supporters alike. I move from crisis to crisis every day; meanwhile the prisoners I am not actively engaged in supporting at any given minute hover in my peripheral vision, imploring they not be forgotten. None are ever forgotten, of course, but the need to prioritize presents me with difficult decisions about how to use my time and resources daily.

photo by Mike Wisniewski

On August 28, the Los Angeles Catholic Worker had a solidarity arrest action for Pvt. Chelsea Manning at the downtown federal building. Community members David Omondi, Barbara Robinson and Jeff Dietrich chained and handcuffed themselves together and attempted to block the main entrance. They were arrested and charged with two misdemeanors: Failure to disperse and Blocking an entrance.

from the NATO 5 support blog

Sabi Senakiewicz. NATO 5 Support photo.

Sebastian “Sabi” Senakiewicz of the NATO 5 has been deported to his native Poland after spending several weeks in immigration detention. Last November, Sabi took a non-cooperating plea deal to charges of falsely making a terrorist threat after being targeted by two undercover Chicago cops who had infiltrated activist groups in Chicago. He ultimately completed a 4-month boot camp sentence to execute his sentence with the understanding that he would be deported afterwards since he does not have U.S. citizenship.

Photo: IKV Pax Christi

by John LaForge, Nukewatch

BÜCHEL AIR FORCE BASE, Germany — Over 750 people converged here at the country’s largest air base – although U.S. bases at Spangdahlem and Ramstein are far bigger — to condemn the retention of 20 U.S. nuclear weapons, in open violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and in a show of popular rebellion 150 hearty war resisters blockaded all nine base entrances for 24 hours. It was the first time in 16 years of resistance to the base’s use of U.S. H-bombs by Germany’s Tornado jet bombers that the compound had been completely closed to traffic by a protest.